Cooley gets beat badly, but it’s Trent who causes this sack. The RDE (Umenyiora) is beating Cooley around the outside. Keiland sees this and sets himself up to help, but Trent has turned inside to double team the DT. A safety had lined up on the LOS in a rather obvious blitz, and of course Cooley was responsible for the DE, so presumably Trent should have taken this blitzer. Instead Keiland has to react at the last second to pick him up and no one is there to bail out Cooley.

New York Giants at 14:17

1-10-NYG 25 (14:17) B.Jacobs left guard to NYG 25 for no gain (V.Holliday).

Nice job by Vonnie doing exactly what a 3-4 DE is supposed to do. He uses his strength to halt the LT on the line and keeps him in front of him so he can control the gap to either side, then once the runner commits he sheds off to stuff him.2-10-NYG 25 (13:36) B.Jacobs right guard to NYG 28 for 3 yards (R.Doughty; P.Buchanon).

Bryant holds up the C and RG on the line so that neither can release to the linebackers. Rocky was kept clean and should have stuffed the play but he overruns the gap (this is a routine occurrence unfortunately), but due to the lack of second level blockers Doughty is able to close and stop the play.

Nickel package with Vonnie and Jarmon as the two DEs. Vonnie attacks across the face of the LG, gets past him and slams into the flank of the C, and drives the C into the RG. Yes, Vonnie is occupying all three interior linemen. It’s an impressive play, but unfortunately Fletcher’s blitz and Jarmon’s stunt, both behind Vonnie and through the left B gap, take too long to develop and Manning is able to hit the slot WR as he beats Byron Westbrook on an out.

Darrion Scott, at LDE, beats the RT with a spin move. The RG tries to help but gets caught up by Carriker who has blown past the C from nose tackle. Scott wraps up Manning and forces a desperate shovel pass.

1-10-WAS 40 (9:42) R.Torain right end to WAS 39 for -1 yards (R.Bernard).

The DT lowers his shoulder into Rabach and basically carries him across the backfield.

2-11-WAS 39 (9:01) R.Torain left end to WAS 39 for no gain (T.Thomas).

Armstrong can’t sustain his block on the CB quite long enough and Torain is taken down before he can turn the corner, though it probably wouldn’t have mattered because the blockers were slow to get to the second level and the MLB was tracking him down the line.

Rabach doubles a DT with Montgomery. The other DT stunts around him and goes through the left A gap, but Lichtensteiger has already turned outside to double the RDE with Trent. Rex still gets it out on time and actually makes a perfect throw, but Armstrong slips making his cut.

Carriker is one of two DLs in the nickel package and splits the A gap a bit too easily, so it unsurprisingly turns out to be a screen and the LG and C get downfield to put solid blocks on Doughty and Rocky to spring the play.

1-10-NYG 47 (7:21) E.Manning pass short left to M.Manningham to NYG 47 for no gain (P.Buchanon).

Buchanon does not seem to have been playing off enough to have justified this quick hitch, and he closes and makes a perfect wrap up tackle.

The Giants do what always pisses me off so badly when the Redskins do it – the LT and LG each release straight to the second level, forgetting that one of them is probably supposed to stay and block Holliday. For what it’s worth, Darrion Scott at LDE also impressively beat his man and may have made the stop in the backfield if Holliday hadn’t beaten him to it.

Finally a screen that is made to look plausible to the defense. Lichtensteiger and Rabach do a decent job of holding their pass block long enough to suck the Giants in, then shed off and Rabach takes down the MLB while Lichtensteiger shows off his mobility by racing way downfield and cutting off the DB;s pursuit angles.

The DT gets penetration on Montgomery, but Montgomery recovers by getting away with a hold and spinning him around, allowing Torain to make it through the hole. He probably could have scored had Brown been able to land a more solid second level block on the LB.

Timeout #1 by WAS at 00:29.

2-1-NYG 1 (:29) R.Grossman pass short right to F.Davis for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN.

Davis sells the play fake with a solid initial block, so the defense forgets about him when he peels off and runs a shallow cross. It’s a good thing he was so absurdly wide open, because that was one serious lob from Rex.

It seems like Rob Jackson should have outside contain on this draw play, but he jumps inside with his pass rush and falls when trying to recover. Fortunately Rocky makes a good pursuit and takes the RB down from behind.

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Staying Medium

This blog, originally founded in the heyday of the Jim Zorn era, is dedicated to countering the irrational euphoria or despair that follows every Washington Redskins win or loss by keeping the focus on the play on the field. You will find I often talk about the boring things like blocking and punting. That's because those things are important. You can email me at stayingmedium@gmail.com or find me on twitter at @staymediumblog.